Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Now that was a Pow! Bif! Bang! of an October! Whew! I can't believe the Halloween countdown is over. Actually, I can't believe I've put together seven of 'em! I really appreciate all the Neato Readers out there!! Thanks so much for all the emails, comments, follows and shares!

A big thanks to Tim Williams for pushing the levels of weirdness to new heights this season with Castle Vlad! Another big thanks to Glen Mullaly for sponsoring this year's countdown and supplying two neato art prints for prizes! A special thank you goes to the first lady of Neato Coolville! She's always been a big help during the countdown, especially with her patience.

The Force was strong with this kid on Halloween night! Instead of buying a cheap-o Ben Cooper Yoda mask he opted for the more pricey Don Post rubber mask. Even though it probably cost his parents $40 extra, he made the right choice. I dig the simplicity of using a brown bath robe to complete Yoda's look. He reminds me of that kid in E.T.

Whoa! Yoda has a third eye!!

I'll be adding this photo to the Growing Up Star Wars flickr group! In the few years of its existence, the group has more than 1500 members and over 1000 images from 1977 - 1985! Recently, GUSW was mentioned on io9! (Link will be added once io9 is back online.) If you haven't by now, check out Growing Up Star Wars for tons of vintage Star Wars Halloween photos!

Hey, where's all the scary movies? Is this October schedule a misprint for a different month? Nope, it looks like the Linn Theatre missed out on playing horror movies in October of '57. They even got stuck with a musical comedy on Halloween. At least their schedule card has some nifty Halloween artwork at the top!

This is just the second item I've found related to the Linn Theatre from Linn, Missouri. The first was a beanie cap!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Hector the Ghoul here! Today is the day that our friend Vlad announces the winners for the Neato Ghouly contest. Three fantastic prizes were at stake. Two signed art prints by illustrator Glen Mullaly and a Mad Monster Party Blu-ray.

Entrants had to guess the number of my floating heads in a photo. (see the photo below) The first two with the right answer won a Glen Mullaly signed art print! The rest of the entrants were thrown into the Portal of Chaos for a chance at the Mad Monster Party. All three winners will win an autographed photo of Vlad! Watch the video below to see if you won! (Winners will be contacted later this evening!)

Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. Squish. Squish. Oh...excuse me. I was just chewing some Wrigley's Gum. Speaking of Wrigley's Gum, here are two Halloween newspaper ads from the 70s! Click on the ads to see 'em up close!

Monday, October 29, 2012

I found it! I found the last plastic bag mask from the Kraft Caramels promotion of 1953!

Check out Pumpkin Head, a plastic hood mask for a child to put over his/her head on Halloween!

I first posted about this set of crazy masks during the 2007 Halloween countdown and then again when I found the Old Witch mask in 2008. Back then, I predicted I would find the Pumpkin Head mask in 2009, but I missed by a few years. This last mask showed up on ebay this past September and I was fortunate enough to snag it! Now all four masks have been accounted for!

The gang's all here! Space Helmet, Toto the Clown, Old Witch and Pumpkin Head.

Now I want to see an original snapshot from 1953 of a kid wearing one of these! I won't hold my breath until my face turns blue, but I bet there's a photo out there somewhere.

Since 2008, Vlad has been a big part of our Halloween countdown here in Neato Coolville. His castle known as Castle Vlad sits at the top of the hill just past No Name Cemetery on Weird Hollow road. Even though he's quick tempered and suffers from extreme mood swings, Vlad is a swell guy for an undead vampire. During October he allows the underground television station KRYP-TV to enter his castle and tape a very low budget television show. This season has by far been the most random and weirdest season yet. If you haven't watched the weirdness, please take a moment and visit Weird Hollow for this year's Castle Vlad episodes. As a simulcast, here's the annual outtakes and blooper episode from the 2012 season.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The end is near for this year's Countdown to Halloween. There's a gaggle of Halloween goodies to discover on various websites and blogs. I've barely had time to visit them all, but the big list can be seen at Countdowntohalloween.com! For fun, I've thrown together a list of some of my favorite individual posts from other sites. Click away!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

This found photo is a Mel Brooks movie waiting to happen! Whip Lady and Lone Ranger are quite the pair and I'm sure this couple had a totally wicked time at a California Halloween party back in '82! Maybe they attended the same party that Elliott's mom did from E.T.

I have a few questions about this Polaroid.

If the cowboy dude is supposed to be The Lone Ranger, then where's his mask? Maybe he was afraid of being sued like Clayton Moore was a few years earlier. He did drop the "The" from his name that's written on the Polaroid.

What 's up with Whip Lady? Is she a Solid Gold dancer? A heavy metal background singer? Female version of a modern Lash LaRue? Hmm...this question just creates more questions.

Since the Whip Lady is wearing a Pink Floyd shirt or what's left of one, it makes me wonder what's playing on the record player next to Lone Ranger? Is it a Pink Floyd song or a Roy Rogers song?

Why is Lone Ranger pointing his gun at Whip Lady? I'm sure we can all guess that she's a "bad girl", but did she rob a train or steal some cattle? Maybe she stole another brick in the wall!

I don't think we'll ever solve the mysteries of this Halloween Polaroid and we're probably better off not knowing!

Friday, October 26, 2012

I recently picked up this neat Frankenstein poster at an antique mall. It's made of vinyl and was made by Ideal Toys in 1972. I've never seen one before. I did a quick internet search and there's not much out there about it. According to WorthPoint, one of these posters sold last year on ebay. Looks like the seller didn't know anything about it either.

No matter because I think this poster is way cool! I like how it looks like Frankie is coming home after a hard day of monstering. Also, I think he goes to the same manicurist as Frankenberry. His fingernails look like the cereal mascot's fingernails.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Over the river and through the wood, to Grandmother's house we go! Yep, I was visiting my 99 year old Grandmother recently and was helping her go through some of her holiday items. I ran across this nifty old Beistle scarecrow packed away with old Christmas and Easter decorations. This guy is fun enough, but we kept on digging down in the closet...or as I call it, her time machine closet!

Sure enough we found more Halloween stuff. Some homemade cardboard stencils! She made them back in the 1940s for a Halloween party for my Mom and Uncle. I just love the simple Halloween shapes!

Later in the day we found some of her scrapbooks. She's been scrapbooking since the 1930s!

In her 1975 scrapbook is this Halloween drawing from me when I was five years old! Wow, I have no memory of drawing this, but it looks like I had a fun time drawing Halloween! It's very similar to my kid art book that I posted last year.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Um...excuse me little girl in the quilt dress. Do you know there's a skeleton standing behind you? Don't be frightened, 'cause he's just a classic Beistle cardboard skeleton and most of 'em are friendly.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Back during the 2007 Halloween countdown, I posted one of my favorite items from my collection, an original package of Kraft Wrapples! For this year's countdown, I'm happy to share a newspaper ad from 1974.

I love the artwork in this ad! (The art style looks really familiar. Anyone have any clues who the artist could be?)

Also, back in 2007, a few of us were trying to remember the jingle from the commercial. Now we know for sure as the fine folks over at The Museum of Classic Chicago Television unearthed the original commercial!

Wow, hearing the jingle and watching the commercial really transports me back to simpler days!

------Update------
Here's a different commercial and this one from 1978 features Johnny Wrappleseed!

Not sure why Kraft discontinued Wrapples, but I think they need to make a come back. Here's an idea! Everyone tweet @kraftfoods asking them to bring back #wrapples!